News
Alumni Updates
Frank Morrey ’64 – Life during Covid hasn’t been all that bad for Colleen and myself. We were encouraged to exercise out-of-doors and here in Colorado, since we live next to The Garden of the Gods, we have plenty of opportunity for doing that. I have been riding my BH road bike, hiking the trails and enjoying the wildflowers above timberline during the summer. We’ve also been able to enjoy our two new grandchildren as well, they are five and three.
But it’s time for a road trip!! I am going to drive to Ann Arbor to play golf and visit the new chapter house. I plan to arrive on Wednesday afternoon, June 2nd, and stay until Sunday, June 6th. I can still drink a beer and maybe stay up until 10 PM, so if anyone wants to meet up for dinner and/or drinks, please get in touch. My cellphone number is 719-684-6380.
Lee Brandt ’64 – The biggest and best news is that I, and my wife Sara, recently got our two rounds of COVID vaccinations. Like so many people our age, we had nearly a year of being housebound. In December I became 80, but “celebrated” in our house with just our children and families. Now we are venturing out some and trying to return to a somewhat normal life, albeit wearing a mask when required. Wow, we even went inside a grocery store to buy our food. Next week Sara also becomes 80. We will be enjoying a nice dinner celebration with family at one of Atlanta’s finest restaurants. Everyone stay healthy and safe.
Bob Sielski ’64 – Editor’s note: the following are taken from his Facebook page.
Feb. 7, 2021 — I ran (walked?) the Melbourne Florida Marathon this morning. The course consisted of two 13-mile loops going north along the Indian River, crossing it going east on a causeway and bridge, going south along a residential road, and completing the loop by heading west over another causeway and bridge. During the first loop, thunderstorms developed and the course was closed, so I was only permitted to complete a half-marathon of 13.1 miles. I could have gone at a faster pace, but I was pacing myself for 26.2 miles. I finished number 209 of 224 overall. To maintain social distancing, they did not give out age-group awards. However, as I was the only male 75 or over, I would have taken first place in that category by default (although there was a 76- year old woman who finished four minutes ahead of me).
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February 13 — I ran the Brevard Zoo’s Rafiki Run 3K this morning with grandsons Forest and Cameron. They left me in the dust, but I did finish #557 of 966 overall and #3 for my age group. I was beaten by one four-year old, and one five-year old, but better for them.
April 20 — I finished the Golden Driller Marathon in Tulsa, Oklahoma last Saturday, April 17. My time was more than 12 minutes faster than in my last marathon in November 2020, so I can’t complain. I finished number 215 out of 228 overall and number 139 out of 141 males. And I was number 1 for males over 75 by default. This makes my 37th state, so I have only 13 more states to complete.
States remaining: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York
I plan to run marathons back-to-back in New Jersey and New York on June 8 and 9, 2021, but those will be slow 26.2-mile events with no time limit.
I mainly run marathons, unless there is a local 5K event for a charity that I want to support. The 3K run with my grandsons on February 13 was to support our local zoo, and then I did a 5K the following Saturday for support of an Autism charity.
With the Covid-19 pandemic, many events have been cancelled, but I flew to Tulsa on April 15 with little difficulty, and the Delta Airline plane was about ¾ full.
I also swim and bicycle, and am planning to enter a sprint triathlon on May 16 here in Cocoa, Florida. ¼ mile swim, 12.5-mile bike, and 5K run. I am still working part-time as a consultant to the U.S. Office of Naval Research, but that has not involved travelling for more than a year, as the government is very restrictive on travel and open meetings for employees and consultants.
May 16 at 2:24 PM I finished the Space Coast Triathlon this morning, Sunday, May 16, 2021. (1/4 mile swim, 12 mile bike, 3.1 mile run) I finished # 187 out of 190 overall. There were a bunch of other old geezers there too, and I was #6 of 7 males 70+.
David Siglin ’64 – Our goldendoodle died in December of 2019, so we got another in March of 2020, driving from Ann Arbor to southeastern Ohio to pick her up just before the pandemic shutdown. She is the very definition of explosive energy. In early March of this year, she stepped on something that sliced open a pad on her left front foot, resulting in a month of multiple visits to the vets to change the bandages (pads are too soft to stitch) and her spending March wearing a cone of shame.
Meanwhile, five friends have died of covid this past year. We have pretty much stayed inside since the shutdown, although nothing has stopped me from playing golf last summer, fall, winter, or this spring.
To keep busy, I wrote a book on baseball – Baseball’s Best: Comparing Over 1000 Players In Their Primes, 1893-2019. (Hitters’ and pitchers’ primes are usually 7 or 8 consecutive years and fielders’ are 5 or 6.) It uses sabermetric methods to compare players to their own leagues, regresses them based on their competition, and puts them all into one year (American League, 2014) so they can be on the same footing. And it concludes by listing them all in order from best to worst and naming the best player ever (not the greatest, but the best in their prime). Hint: it wasn’t Babe Ruth or Willie Mays or Walter Johnson, Cy Young or Sandy Koufax. If you like baseball, math, lists, and stories (like why the distance from the pitcher’s rubber to home plate is 60’ 6” because of bad penmanship) you can get it on Amazon. If you don’t like any of that, get it anyway. It’s guaranteed to have you sleeping like a newborn within 7 or 8 minutes. And that’s how I spent my pandemic vacation. Next!
Sheldon Wolberg ’68 – and his wife are working from home. We are all vaccinated but are still isolating. Our daughter finished with a Masters in Accounting from Case Western in December and will start working as a CPA at Plante Moran in Detroit this year. Our son is a freshman in Ann Arbor at West Quad and is in the Ross business school. Although he did not join Delta Chi, he has joined a fraternity and is active in two of the business clubs. For vacations, we rented a house in Cape Coral Florida for 4 weeks last December, and will spend 2 weeks at a cottage in Tennessee this June. Everyone stay healthy and safe.
Jim Slawson ’82 – After my residency in family medicine I settled in Milwaukee (God only knows why…). Up until 2 years ago I practiced and taught medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Then I “hung up my stethoscope” and took a chief medical officer position with one of Wisconsin’s largest Medicaid health plans. I feared I would miss direct patient care, but instead love the new challenge. I have remained married to Nancy for almost 30 years. We raised three children -now scattered from California to Japan. I’ve become a Packer’s fan, but will always remain a Michigan fan. I only wish they would beat Wisconsin more often – I’m tired of taking the hassle from coworkers.
Frank Shumsky IV ’91 – My family and I moved back to Ann Arbor about 2 years ago from the Minneapolis area for many reasons, but top of the list is that Ann Arbor is a very special place to grow up. We have really appreciated the many flavors of humanity that it features. I am still working for Ameriprise Financial as a Registered Principal. My wife Jen works for a non-profit supporting families with rare diseases in general and Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy specifically. My son graduated from High School and is a freshman in the Michigan School of Engineering. My daughter is a sophomore at Huron High School and plays field hockey and lacrosse. Covid has been a real challenge for our family, but comes with some great opportunities. I look forward to being able to go out with my brothers for a beer or something once normal is the order of the day. Best wishes to you all.
Greg Haft ’94 – lives just outside of Zurich, Switzerland with his wife Kinga, and two sons. Greg runs the Global Catastrophe business for PartnerRe so is essentially the Master of Disasters. Since relocating across the pond, he hasn’t been back to Ann Arbor, but looks forward to bringing the family back for a football game when travel becomes a thing again.
David Loeffler ’10 – lives in Portland, OR with his wife Naomi and dog Butters. They moved out to Portland after he graduated from his Pathology Residency program in 2019 for a fellowship in General Surgical Pathology. He has since stayed on at OHSU as a Surgical Pathologist. Outside of the hospital he enjoys spending his time with his wife and dog exploring the Pacific Northwest via hiking and bicycling.
Zach Jones ’11 – I’m currently living in Ferndale Michigan with my fiancé Sara. I’m a manager at DTE (for the locals, no I can’t give you an update when your power will come back on) and have been working at DTE (DTE is the electric company for Southeast Michigan) since I returned to Michigan in 2015. I manage a group that schedules proactive replacement and repair of equipment in our substations. During the summers I enjoy general fitness [(crossfit, running, HIIT (high intensity interval training)], etc. and a lot of golf. In the Michigan winters I like to get up north for some snowboarding and hot toddys. Keeping my fingers crossed that this fall returns to some normalcy and I get to see my 100k best friends in the Big House. Go Blue!